John Fennelly, CEO of Lionbridge (lionbridge.com), delivers an informative overview of the translation services industry, its global expansion, and how technology is changing the industry. Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. is a successful software and professional services company that specializes in language translation, e-learning translation, localization, software testing, internationalization, interpretation, software development, software testing, and content development services and strategies. Lionbridge’s CEO discusses the history of Lionbridge and their goal to provide a more personalized way to translate.

CEO John Fennelly is a seasoned leader and pioneering innovator in localization and translation services. His strong leadership has helped to produce significant organic growth at Lionbridge, now with over 6,000 employees on board ready to assist businesses, helping them connect with their customers anywhere in the world. Before Fennelly’s tenure at Lionbridge began he was the CEO of HireRight, a proven leader in the HCM technology space, where he led a major turnaround effort that culminated in record revenue and earnings growth leading to the profitable sale of the company. Fennelly has a long history in the information services and technology sector, working at notable companies such as Thomson Reuters, SunGard, and others.

The translation entrepreneur highlights the many ways Lionbridge can help companies succeed globally. He details the value of rolling out new products globally to customers in a manner which all documents, websites, user guides, and more are translated with accuracy for the intended readers, wherever they are, in whatever language that is needed. He discusses his broad team of close to 30,000 translation freelancers who work diligently to ensure quality is delivered for every client and their company or business, by understanding a company’s brand and unique messaging. And he details the importance of grasping various factors such as the differences between literal and nuanced translations that will resonate with the local market, driving interest and consumer connections.

While English is widely used as a base language for many businesses, there is still high demand for direct translation into a large number of varied languages globally. Fennelly states that the history of translation services was largely based in the translation of technical documents, the ancillary parts of the system or product, but now with so many voice-activated devices coming to the market, the translation of those is changing Lionbridge’s space rather dramatically.

Fennelly provides his thoughts on the future of translation services, and how machine learning is an integral part of where the business model is going now that voice-activated services are able to interact with people in their native language. And Lionbridge plays a major role in helping companies train their machines. Lionbridge believes that at its core, communication is always human, and the specialized Lionbridge community works tirelessly to add understanding to your data, and nuance to machine translation.

As companies continue to seek new opportunities, customers, and markets for their brand, Lionbridge seeks to move forward with them, assisting them with connections, delivery, and training for translation services at the highest level. Fennelly talks about the need for translation companies to transition from service-based to technology-based companies, and how some are falling short as technology expands at a blistering pace. As Fennelly states, companies that can successfully navigate that transition will be well positioned for success, and those that cannot will suffer.